what have we learnt from our preliminary task ?

What have we learnt from our preliminary task ? on Prezi

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the creation of the opening sequence product we have learnt a wide range of technological skills.  In which we have practiced and developed during the making of this media project.  We used experience from the preliminary project and developed our understanding of how different camera shots, and edits helped to create the feel of a mysterious horror.
For example:
Shots
We really got a handle and understanding of what shots worked well in certain places of production.  A slow reverse zoom from an extreme close up of a hair brush gave suspense and a mysterious effect.  A circular pan of the character sitting down works as an establishing shot of the short scene.  In story boarding/filming we made sure we focused on the object shots as this would help represent the process of a female daily routine.

 

Lighting
With our film we wanted to accomplish an effective horror.  So during filming we tried to use less light.  However, when we uploaded the video's on to the Macs, we realised that the lighting was too dark and quite grainy.  In the end we decided to re-record with the main lights of the room on a higher setting.  This managed to work out well.  As the room still looked quite dim, the effect we were going for.

 

Editing

When editing the opening sequence we used the apple macs to upload the recordings we had taken.  On these there are different software's that were very helpful in production.  Such as imovie and garage band.  These were very successful in helping us to produce our short films.    

 

Sound
As we were not permitted to use copyright protected music, our group decided to search myspace for a soundtrack that would fit well with our theme.  It needed to have beats but at the same time have a slow and muffled sound.  we managed to fulfill this by using garage band (a software on Macs).  We added affects until we were happy.

 

Equipment and technologies used in production:

• Video camera - We used the video camera to capture all of our shots for the opening sequence.
• Tripod - The tripod was used when when filming a steady shot, Like an extreme close-up.
• Apple Mac  - These were used the whole way through the production process.
• Camera - A camera was used to keep track of all the work we were doing production.
• i-movie - Used to edit the opening sequence, by putting in different cuts, fades and graphics.
• My Space - This was used to find a sound track which is not protected by copyright.
• Garage Band - This software was used to edit the soundtrack found to make it more original to fit the genre of film.
• YouTube - Our group used YouTube to watch examples of similar opening sequences.  To get an idea of what worked well without using too many cliches.
• Google - This search engine was used to look for examples of company logos.
• Candles - These were used as an eerie looking light source.  Whilst sampling, we found that the candles really worked in collaboration with the video camera and gave off a significantly effective light.
• Facebook - We used facebook to keep in contact with each other, sending links and photos to one another.  We also printed some pictures of typical looking social groups to stick up on the wall in order to be filmed as we had designed.

In what ways does our media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of our film
The title of our film is displayed in the final frame of our opening piece, this allows a build up to be made in order to reveal the identity of who one would assume to be the unidentified mysterious character.  We used a large sized font to create the title, which allows the audience to see behind the titles which gives a sense that something is to be unveiled.

Setting/location

The setting we decided to choose to shoot our opening sequence was in a simple bedroom area, this was set at my house. We used a traditional style white dressing table in order to give an angelic feel to the environment, this contrasted with the dimmed candle lit light. Furthermore an example of a movie set in a homely area is the introduction of "American Psycho", the lighting in this film contrasts to the actions that are to take place in the film similarly to ours. The difference is that our movie begun with a chilling atmosphere due to the light we used within a safe and comfortable setting.

Props
Props we decided to use in our film are seen to be conventional female beauty products which are used on a daily basis whilst getting ready. These props would not be found in a typical horror movie. One item we used to create a typical horror atmosphere was a standard large kitchen knife. This knife is similar to those used in horror movies such as the shower scene in 'Psycho'.

Camerawork and editing

The shot in our opening sequence which is influenced strongly by the film 'Se7en' is the one where Hope is filing her nails which is taken up close, similarly to that of the hand in Se7en where a hand is shown to be sewing.

This shot creates the mysterious atmosphere we were aiming to create. It also keeps the identity of Hope hidden from the audience watching.

Title, font and style

The style of credits we used in our film were influenced by the style of those used in the movie 'Se7en'.

Using the same style of writing for each of our credits creates mystery due to the writing being see-through, using this creates suspense as to what is happening behind the text.

The style of font we used is simple yet effective and has not been used in any other movies we researched, which suggests out credits were an original idea. A comparison could be made between our credits and those which are presented in the movie "Se7en".

Story and how the opening sets it up 

The opening sequence we have put together sets up the rest of the film by introducing a character who's identity is hidden from the audience. This enables the set up of the following scenes to slowly reveal the identity of the character Hope. This is similar to the use of hidden character in the film 'Texas chainsaw massacre' which creates suspense and suggests something is to take place.

Genre and how the opening the suggests it
It is made clear from the opening sequence that the genre of our movie is horror. This is shown through the eerie music which creates an unsettling feeling, whilst the abstract camera shots create an unsafe environment. The opening sequence we created gives off the same vibes felt through watching 'Se7en', it creates suspense and unsettles the watcher in to wondering what will take place as little is given away whilst watching the opening and only a build up of tension is made.

How characters are introduced
There is only one character introduced in our opening sequence. The character of Hope which we introduce from the very beginning of the film has her identity hidden from the audience, all the audience can see from the start is the character from behind revealing long feminine blonde hair. We then reveal parts of Hope through various camera shots such as the lips and hands. Revealing the hands of the character before letting the audience see the face allows them to focus on the actions of the character, this is similar to in 'Se7en when we can see the actions of the actor but not the identity.

How did you attract your audience ?

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Here is a link to our presentation on the way our media product may be distributed:http://prezi.com/-y3ormmflhaz/media-institutions-distribution-companies/

Who Would Be Our Audience For Our Product

This video tells us what type of students would like our film and it would also enable us to determine whether our film was suitable for the audience we were going to target.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

It is clear to see that the main social group of our film is teenagers. In order to interest this age group we decided the main character of our film should be of a similar age, which we believed was a good way to enable viewers to relate with the actions of 'Hope'. 

The character 'Hope' fits the natural teenage stereotype of a young female in many ways, for example the use of a dressing table is seen as a natural furniture piece owned by all women as a place to resume their beauty regime. Here on the right is an example of a woman advertising perfume seated at her dressing table.

The use of beauty products is also typically linked to females. The lipstick shot we created gives a strong feminine feel to the film. Red lipstick is often associated with promiscuous women and the close up of the placement of lipstick on Hope's lips presents a sense of mystery similarly to the image of this woman.

Production Logo.

Our group decided to design and make our own production logo.  We felt that this would give our film a little more originality and  a professional look. 

We started by drawing out a couple of designs and choose the best one.  The next process was to choose a bold font from word processor. After printing, we cut the stencil out of each letter so that we could use it as a tenplate to paint around.  We used a simple black acrilic paint for this and it gave a nice spatered effect, in which we were pleased with the outcome.

Once we had produced the logo (shown on the right) we stuck it to a plain wall.  Where we were able to film the still image, by performing a reverse zoom from the logo outwards.   By the first couple of takes we were very happy with the outcome, so we uploaded them onto the macs and edited the best one into the beginning of our opening title.

Filming Of Pictures

In lesson time, Stephanie and I put together a range of photos and magazine articles relating to the character of HOPE, whilst Antar and Tom worked on the editing. We gathered up group images of 'Hope' and cut out articles such as 'how to be happy in a social situation' which we found to be of relevance to the film we were creating. After doing this we placed the images on a blank wall and created a collage, this was then filmed close up with a monopod to create a personal effect and draw attention to HOPE'S personality meanwhile hiding her identity.

Editing

The editing process took us two weeks to complete. During this time we gathered ideas on placement of shots as a group and each gave input in order to personalise the film exactly how we wanted to make it. We decided that our film should consist of abstract shots to create an eerie feel, this would also enable us to hide the identity of our killer.

The credits we decided to use are 'clip video' titles. These titles allowed us to experiment by using a range of techniques to get the titles exactly how we desired. Our aim was to create titles which fitted with our horror genre, yet did not copy other films we has researched upon.

Filming Schedule

Scene: 1 
Description: Hope is seated in the room doing make up
Characters:Hope 
Location: Bedroom 
Setups: A dressing table with a mirror 
Time: 1 Hour
Props & Kit: Camera Tri-Pod Make Ups

Casting Shots

This is an image of our main character 'Hope'. The person we decided to use to play this part is Stephanie Parker as she fitted the profile description we were aiming to fulfil. We wanted the character of 'Hope' to look like an average teenage girl. 

Youtube Account Creation And Group Email

We created a group email to enable organisation of any work that we all as a group need to view this enables us to make sure we have a backup of work so our entire group can view the work this means if someone isn't in and they have access to internet they can send work so others can publish it to there blog and also use in practical lessons.

The youtube account creation enables the group to save videos of influences to our favourites which we can then use on our blogs for future reference and also it allows us to post our videos we create.

Tips

Mr Go allowed gave us a way to avoid letterboxing so it avoids the long process of waiting for a long clip to letter box the process consists of after you have finished uploading the video you go to the stop button then save then quit the application this avoids the process of letterboxing.

In lesson we have edited a song that we have looked at and enjoyed yet we feel parts of the song need to be remove as so it can fit well in our work so we edited the song and removed parts we did this using garage band so we could make it suitable for our film. The artist we used is called  The Widdler the songs name was technobable this is a dubstep tune with a slightly eery rhythm to it so we wanted so lower the tempo and make it slightly more scary and less similar to the tune that we acquired from myspace

Whilst experimenting with ideas to use in our movie we looked upon how we could use everyday items in order to create suspense. For example we thought of using the image of a zoomed in blow drying brush of which looks like a deathly object up close. The irony would be when zoomed out it would be an ordinary object.

Another example is using red nail varnish in order to trick audiences in to assuming its blood dripping/spilt at a first glance. We could then reveal that it is simply nail varnish which would be effective. This is similar to examples used in the "Dexter" morning routine.

Present day, London. HOPE, the name of a young teenage girl; a well know face with in the community;with no known enemies HOPE was a popular girl with friends, family and others. She was achieving above average in her academics and had won many awards for her dancing. Life seems great in Hope's perspective, until one night of a distressing event... we first meet HOPE as she is devising plans in her room; these plans where to isolate one girl, VELNA her best friend before the events which destroyed HOPE'S life. She plans and depicts to cause her pain and grief like her own, by killing VELNA'S friends and loved ones. Gruesome murders take place, all victims from VELNA's life, she becomes more isolated, more panicked from what is happening all round her. no clues, no evidence to who has carried out these attacks the only link is VELNA.

Target Audience

The film may appeal to those aged between 15 to 29 years of age, both male and female. The reason for this assumption is that the storyline is based upon a teenage group who deal with issues which relate to teenage life such as popularity within school, relationships and friendship. It could also interest those who study film in further education or as a hobby, as it deals with many issues relating to adolescence. Furthermore those who enjoy the thrill of a slasher movie may be interested in the movie, but due to the teenage appeal of being able to relate with characters it is likely that older audiences may not be impressed by the violence, bad language and sexual references. On the other hand it is possible that the movie may appeal to a slightly older age group, as they may feel a sense of nostalgia due to experiencing the 1980’s slasher movies such as: Halloween, Scream etc. It is also clear that this film is inappropriate for young children and the elderly generation of people due to the themes it presents. 
The film may have difficulties reaching box office standards due to it being an independent movie, meaning the film has been made on a very low budget and no well known actors or settings have been used. Furthermore, British movies are generally less successful than American movies. These reasons lead to the conclusion that the movie will not bring in audiences as well as other movies.


The film Se7en has a similar theme to the film HOPE, so we believe our target audience should follow a similar pattern. This backs up our idea about who the film may appeal to. We can see on average that the movie Se7en appealed mainly to those aged between 15-29  and also on average adults up to the age of 45 also found the movie satisfying.




VotesAverage
Males 213,945 8.7
Females 33,271 8.5
Aged under 18 2,940 9.0
Males under 18 2,423 9.0
Females under 18 492 8.5
Aged 18-29 149,733 8.8
Males Aged 18-29 129,087 8.9
Females Aged 18-29 19,984 8.6
Aged 30-44 81,365 8.6
Males Aged 30-44 70,262 8.6
Females Aged 30-44 10,343 8.3
Aged 45+ 12,933 8.0
Males Aged 45+ 10,658 8.0
Females Aged 45+ 2,117 7.6
IMDb staff 46 8.5
Top 1000 voters 863 8.0
US users 72,139 8.6
Non-US users 148,752 8.7
IMDb users 300,140 8.7

American Psycho Opening

This is the opening sequence to american psycho which is a horror movie with mundane activities which make him seem less like a killer and increasingly ordinary. This does not allow the viewer to identify him as the killer just a male that takes pride upon his appearance. This leads to the viewer asking themselves questions.

Looking At Musical Themes For Horror Productions

Primarily we looked at songs from previous films  

The Exorcist

This has a very eerie piano being played repetitively it puts the audience on the edge of the seat yet this is very cliche.

We then believed due to our film being a horror but yet we wanted to also slightly break some of the rules of horror to make it increasingly attractive to a new audience of horror fans and we don't want our film to be a strict to horror formulas so it should appeal to people that watched the old slasher  movies yet also a teenage audience. Yet we also don't want the film to seem like a gimmick so it can't be to happy otherwise it seems like a spoof of a movie.

Fonts

We looked at various fonts to ensure it was possible for the audience to know we were showing a horror film we also wanted to make sure it appealed to the audience we were showing the film to so we had to ensure the entirety of the audience like what we were doing also we have to make sure the writing is also legible.

Story Board.

This is our storyboard for our opening sequence, we hope for the short film to look as similar as this without any problems.  There are many extreme close-ups of the main character and other object to disguise her identity and leave wondering.

Why We Picked Horror For A Genre

We looked through several different genres and brainstormed various ideas horror appealed to us as a group we enjoy watching horror films. We also noticed horror has various conventions that are very clear and obvious things that horror films constantly use such as colours such as red are used as an omen for danger very frequently it allows the audience to expect something these are used in a very subtle way. Sound is also used very effectively to replicate something is about to happen and create a sense of suspense sound is also added. Make up and character realism in modern horror is increasingly vital to a horror it makes the film believable and more gruesome the better the make up. Casting is vital in horror is very vital for instance the horror movie Dracula made by the hammer horror company ensured their villain (antagonist was tall) so he commanded the screen when he was on as he looks very dominant. Shorter characters are generally the victims of the situation.

Horror Cliches

We looked at various cliches that are related to horror films, these are very over used things, as a group we decided a horror has various cliches but in order to keep it interesting we made sure we tried to break the cliches by incorporating things that are not over used.

Character Creation

Hope (Main Character)
Hope has a religious family and they have disowned her and kept her out of the family as she has been raped she is also a very popular girl she enjoys going out listening to music and dancing she is a blonde female who wears white as to represent purity and light. She has good looks and is clever.

Velna
A former friend of Hope's who Hope has lost trust in and dislikes now. Hope aims to isolate Velna as she no longer supports Hope since Hope has been raped. She is a very clever girl and enjoys puzzles and mysteries.

Charlie (Target 3) Sport Orientated. Is paralyzed.

Velna (Boyfriend) Alexsander

Emma

Our name choice was vital we tried to find meaning behind names with irony of the situation they find themselves in also we wanted to make sure our characters names meant something. They have values and carry a message.

Target Audience

It may appeal to those aged between 12 to 25 years of age, both male and female. The reason for this assumption is that the storyline is based upon a teenage group who deal with issues which relate to teenage life. It could also interest those who study film in further education or as a hobby, and enjoy the thrill of a slasher movie, due to the teenage appeal it is likely that older audiences would not be impressed by the violence, bad language and sexual references. On the other hand it is possible that the movie may appeal to a slightly older age group. For example people who have experienced the 1980’s slasher movies such as: Halloween, Scream etc. Further more it is clear that this film is inappropriate for young children and the elderly generation of people.

Se7en (Opening Credits)

This is a film that has an opening similar to what we are going to base our final production on. We looked at the Mise en scene very closely in this scene, also the shots.  We came to the conclusion that we do not want to uncover our killer from the beginning. We decided seeing the hands of the killer and not the face is  very effective. The music also creates a tension for the viewer and makes what go on feel very tense

Primary Ideas.

Above is a spider diagram of our initial ideas for the task: to make a short opening sequence.  We went through many different genres of film, thinking what sort of ideas each of our group members had, trying to steer clear of cliches.  Once we had drawn this out.  We went on to youtube to look at examples of different genres of opening sequences.  From this we looks at our ideas and decided that 'Horror' would interest us the best.

Opening Sequences

Opening sequences are key to films as they have the titles in them also set a location (Establishing Shot) that the film will take place in or a key place in the film that is vital, sometimes they introduce the characters, they also allow the viewers to know whom the production companies are. The opening sequence also allows the viewer to establish the style or tone of the film.

In lesson we looked at 3 openings for 3 different types of film and how they conveyed the genre and how easy it was for the viewer to establish the genre of film.

Opening Sequence 1 : Office Space
As a viewer you can establish this is a comedy as the colours and font are joyful and colourful so it looks like a comedy form the titles. Then as we are shown some footage in the sequence there is non diegetic music which is comical, there is also diegetic sound which is comical. The sequence has a lot of comedy conventions such as close ups these show reactions to things that make it all increasingly funny. My opinion on this opening sequence is it's nice as its an easy watch like its light hearted nothing controversial in it it also uses irony very well throughout the sequence.

Opening Sequence 2 : Trainspotting
This film we can tell is a drama as we notice alot of running and also the freeze frames make it look action like yet with the freeze frames we are introduced to the characters as they contain names next to the freeze frames. This is also a low budget film so its a smaller film. It is also a british film so we learn whom the production and distribution companies are from its short title sequence.

Opening Sequence 3 : Sweeney Todd
This is clearly as horror movie as it uses horror genre conventions colour in this is key as its alot of reds and blacks these are very basic genre conventions then there is the lightning this is also a genre convention. there is mist and sound theses are key and vital whilst we watch the opening sequence in its entirety.